Few composers, if not none, have exerted the same level of influence on music as J. S. Bach. The most prominent member of a highly musical family (four of his children became well-known musician as well as several other relatives), Johann Sebastian Bach was both an outstanding musician and a genius composer "with supreme creative powers in which forceful original inventiveness and intellectual control are perfectly balanced" (Sadie, 1: 785). His works are enormous in both number and variety, ranging from chamber music over church and secular cantatas, wedding chorales, his famous organ compositions, to masses and several Passions.

Although perhaps not always thought of as highly as his Saint Matthew Passion, Bach's Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello (BWV 1007- 1012) were nonetheless an important and influential act of creativity that set the standards for cello solo composition at that time. Christoph Wolff writes in his book Johann Sebastian Bach: The learned Musician that "Bach the quintessential instrumentalist raises and redefines the technical standards of performing by fully exploiting the idiomatic qualities of […] the cello (Wolff 232)" and Stanley Sadie, in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, writes that Bach "far surpassed his predecessors (Sadie, 1: 816)*" in his composition of the Cello Suites. Both authors agree that the ingenuity of the piece stems to a large degree from Bach's ability to defy the instruments limited capability to play multiple voices simultaneously and "bring into effective play, without even an accompanying bass part, dense counterpoint and refined harmony coupled with distinctive rhythms (Sadie, 1: 816)", or as Wolff effectively puts it, "[the Suites] create the maximum effect with a minimum of instrumental 'tools' (Wolff, 232)."

The second of the Six Suites is set in the key of d minor. Following the usual combination of movements, the suite consists of 6 movements: a prelude, an allemande, a sarabande, two minuets, and a gigue. The prelude, which is the piece of my choice for the jury, functions as the introduction to the entire suite; it introduces the key (and therein the general mood of the piece) to the audience.

The preparation of the Prelude to the Second Suite in d minor was not an easy, but very interesting and meaningful journey for me. I had initially prepared the movement over the summer, but only on my own, and though technically I had the piece under good control, I had some difficulty interpreting the harmonic movement of the piece; I especially felt that I was not connecting certain passages to the rest of the movement very well. Over the course of the semester, however, it was a combination of my increasing understanding of chords and progressions due to my taking a theory course and the guidance of Vivian Barton (my teacher) that allowed me to both improve my understanding of the movement as well as become aware of details that I had previously been completely unaware of.

But the main reason for my excitement about this piece is that I feel as though in preparing it, I was at the same time opening the door to a new level of playing. Only little more than half a year ago, it seems that I was playing with a much narrower view and in much more passive manner; I was not paying attention to such a level of detail as I now (or perhaps I was not capable to do so at that time?), and I almost needed Vivian to tell me what to do musically with certain passages etc. This has changed considerably: I feel like now I am urging to put much more thought into my playing; there is a desire to develop and explore my own ideas. I cannot tell to what degree such change could be the result of one piece alone, but it is certainly fitting that such change should come during the preparation of such wonderful a piece.

Bibliography:

1. Sadie, Stanley, ed. Grove, George, Sir. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians." 20 vols. Washington, DC. MacMillan. 1980.
2. Wolff, Christoph. Johann Sebastian Bach: the learned musician. New York. W.W. Norton & Company. 2000.